Neon Genesis Evangelion
Neon Genesis Evangelion is an anime that aired from October 1995 to March 1996. ‘The year is 2015. A world where, 15 years before, over half the human population perished. A world that has been miraculously revived; it’s economy, the production, circulation, consumption of goods, so that even the shelves of convenience stores are filled. A world where the people have gotten used to the resurrection-yet still feel the end of the world is destined to come. A world where the number of children, the future leaders of the world, is few. Where they created decoy cities, to protect themselves from the destructive beings called “angels”’. The director’s vision would appeal to a variety of people each with their own interpretation, leaving it broad
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and open ended. He commented later about his vision in an interview, saying, “Evangelion is a puzzle. Any person can see it and give his or her own answer. In other words, we’re offering viewers to think by themselves, so that each person can imagine his or her own world.” After watching this anime myself, I have decided to divide it into 3 different categories I interpreted it; psychologically, religious, and depression. The psychological shows the human behavior that is in us all, the ID, Ego, and Superego. It also shows self awareness, the basis of the Human Instrumentality Project. The religious shows the parallels to the bible and other religious texts. The third category, depression, shows the different ways humans react to depression. This anime is listed under the shonen genre, meaning it was made for younger boys. Yet, this anime doesn’t follow the normal formula most animes in this genre follow. The formula is a somewhat dense male boy who is brave, strong, and willing to put his life on the line for others. The main character is weak and pathetic, he has to get through his problems like a normal human, and everyone in this show has problems. This anime is more than anything Naruto, Bleach, or any other shonen anime could ever be. It has a much more deeper meaning.
The ID is the animal instinct, the Superego is the social consciousness that keep our animal instincts in check, and the Ego is what we are, constantly pulled by the two sides. The three eva pilots, Rei, Shinji, and Asuka, are the three branches of this Freudian concept. Shinji represents the ego. He has had many tragedies happen to him, such as his mother’s mysterious death, his father’s neglect and his father’s use of Shinji for his own benefit. Due to all this, he becomes a pushover because he has a low self image. He is pulled by Rei and Asuka who are on opposite sides of the spectrum.
Rei is the silent blue haired girl who always takes orders and goes through her life with no emotion. For most of this anime we have no idea who she is, exactly, she is very mysterious and keeps to herself. She represents the Superego. Specifically speaking in this anime, she isn’t even human. She is a clone containing the dna of Shinji’s mother, and the essence of Lilith.Her memories are scattered, and has no personal records.
Asuka is a fiery girl with bright red hair to match her anger, she represents the ID. She is explosive and rude, but only to hide her inner fragility. Her mother was mentally unstable, and spoke to a doll as if it was her own daughter. She later committed suicide, leaving Asuka feeling inferior and hurt, full of rage at a very young age. Asuka is uncontrollable, and believes she is the best at everything she does.
Another psychological point this show goes into is the self-awareness. In one episode, Shinji is swallowed by a shadow that turns out to be an angel, later named Leliel. Leliel speaks to Shinji in his own mind while he is trapped, his life support slowly losing power. Leliel speaks to Shinji of two selves, one which is observed and one that observes itself. There is a Shinji that exists in his own mind, and a Shinji that exists in others mind. All of these copies are different, yet they are all true forms of Shinji, just not complete. Our versions of people are constructs of human perception, take a teacher, for example. To her students, she’s just a teacher, to herself, she’s a teacher, a mother, a wife, a daughter, and more, but we wouldn’t know this, because we know our own version of her, which is correct, she is a teacher, it’s just not complete. The Human Instrumentality Project that is mentioned throughout the show is created to break down these barriers we have placed. It is the creation of the state of being for humanity where no individual exists; even identifying this being as a conglomerate (number of different things or parts that are put or grouped together to form a whole but remain distinct entities) would be incorrect, since there would be no concept as an individual. In the 26th episode, it delves deeper into this topic, it speaks of how we use relationships to define who we are (through their eyes). We define how they react to us, their praise and their criticism.
The anime also seems to have a religious sense as well.
Gendo Ikari always speaks of how everything is going according to the ‘dead sea scrolls’, and while I compared it to the actual dead sea scrolls it actually follows the resurrection, just with different interpretation. In this show the destructive beings that are sent to destroy the humans are called “angels” and are portrayed as bad, even though angels are supposed to be messengers of God. I have my own theory that this is supposed to have a deeper meaning, perhaps it’s showing how they overcame God through science, and the angels were their punishment. There are so many artifacts listed throughout the show that come from christian and jewish texts, such as the lance of longinus, names of the angels, and the main creator of life, Lilith. The lance of longinus in religious texts is a spear (or lance) that pierced Jesus’ side when he was nailed to the cross. In the anime it is a long, two-pronged lance that is keeping Lilith in place on her own seemingly cross-shaped pedestal. The angels have a wide variety of names, all ending in ‘of God’, for example, the third angel, Sachiel, means ‘the covering of God’, the fifth angel, Ramiel, means ‘the thunder of God’. The second angel, Lilith, is named after the first wife of Adam in jewish culture, she was cast out of paradise after refusing to be submissive, since both her and Adam were made from dirt. In the anime, Lilith is what created the first impact, and she also created the moon due to this impact. Her essence flowed out and created life on this Earth, and also is the substance inside the Eva’s in the insert plug that allows the pilots to sync with them. All in all, there is many religious inputs inside this
anime. This anime is focused on the human’s reaction to unsettling events and depression. Shinji has had very traumatic events happen to him at a very young age, his mother dying, his father neglecting him, the end of the world occurring when he was a child, killing most of the world. He has horrible father issues that just grow over time. His father uses him for his own benefit, not caring about his well being, even ready to sacrifice him if the situation calls for it. Due to all the neglect and hatred from his father, he becomes very secluded, and doesn’t talk to anyone. Ritsuko refers to this as ‘The Hedgehog’s Dilemma”, explaining that the closer the hedgehog gets to people, the more he hurts them, and hurts himself. He becomes a pathetic pushover so he doesn’t rock the boat, going around doing what people want him to do in a passive manner, even if he doesn’t want to. He does this to gain the acceptance of others, so others won’t hate him. By the end of this show, he is placed through the Human Instrumentality Project, and finds that his own happiness is better than anything anyone else can give him. When Asuka was a young girl, her mother had a mental disorder due to her contact experiment, she forgot about her daughter, and later committed suicide. Due to these unsettling events, Asuka feels inferior and feels very broken. Unlike Shinji, Asuka uses a different way to react to her own mental problems. She disguises her own fragility and inferiority with overconfidence. Later in the anime when she is being mentally tortured by Arael she has a mental breakdown, realizing she can’t be the best. She becomes mentally unstable, and recedes into a shell.
This anime has many different ways to be taken by different people, even the director, Hideaki Anno, comments about how he has poured his life into this anime, and that this is the greatest of his creations, and you can tell when you watch it that it’s true. This anime opens your mind, and it doesn’t spoon feed you the answers, you have to find them yourself. You can never truly figure out the bad guy, because even the “good guys” are corrupted. The anime series lost money in production, therefore the show had an abrupt ending, leaving many viewers with unanswered questions. Years later, a second season came out, along with three movies that answered many questions and properly finished the anime. I am very confident that I will continue to the next season, but until then, I am satisfied with how amazing this anime was able to open my eyes to new ideas, and to see the world in a different light.
and open ended. He commented later about his vision in an interview, saying, “Evangelion is a puzzle. Any person can see it and give his or her own answer. In other words, we’re offering viewers to think by themselves, so that each person can imagine his or her own world.” After watching this anime myself, I have decided to divide it into 3 different categories I interpreted it; psychologically, religious, and depression. The psychological shows the human behavior that is in us all, the ID, Ego, and Superego. It also shows self awareness, the basis of the Human Instrumentality Project. The religious shows the parallels to the bible and other religious texts. The third category, depression, shows the different ways humans react to depression. This anime is listed under the shonen genre, meaning it was made for younger boys. Yet, this anime doesn’t follow the normal formula most animes in this genre follow. The formula is a somewhat dense male boy who is brave, strong, and willing to put his life on the line for others. The main character is weak and pathetic, he has to get through his problems like a normal human, and everyone in this show has problems. This anime is more than anything Naruto, Bleach, or any other shonen anime could ever be. It has a much more deeper meaning.
The ID is the animal instinct, the Superego is the social consciousness that keep our animal instincts in check, and the Ego is what we are, constantly pulled by the two sides. The three eva pilots, Rei, Shinji, and Asuka, are the three branches of this Freudian concept. Shinji represents the ego. He has had many tragedies happen to him, such as his mother’s mysterious death, his father’s neglect and his father’s use of Shinji for his own benefit. Due to all this, he becomes a pushover because he has a low self image. He is pulled by Rei and Asuka who are on opposite sides of the spectrum.
Rei is the silent blue haired girl who always takes orders and goes through her life with no emotion. For most of this anime we have no idea who she is, exactly, she is very mysterious and keeps to herself. She represents the Superego. Specifically speaking in this anime, she isn’t even human. She is a clone containing the dna of Shinji’s mother, and the essence of Lilith.Her memories are scattered, and has no personal records.
Asuka is a fiery girl with bright red hair to match her anger, she represents the ID. She is explosive and rude, but only to hide her inner fragility. Her mother was mentally unstable, and spoke to a doll as if it was her own daughter. She later committed suicide, leaving Asuka feeling inferior and hurt, full of rage at a very young age. Asuka is uncontrollable, and believes she is the best at everything she does.
Another psychological point this show goes into is the self-awareness. In one episode, Shinji is swallowed by a shadow that turns out to be an angel, later named Leliel. Leliel speaks to Shinji in his own mind while he is trapped, his life support slowly losing power. Leliel speaks to Shinji of two selves, one which is observed and one that observes itself. There is a Shinji that exists in his own mind, and a Shinji that exists in others mind. All of these copies are different, yet they are all true forms of Shinji, just not complete. Our versions of people are constructs of human perception, take a teacher, for example. To her students, she’s just a teacher, to herself, she’s a teacher, a mother, a wife, a daughter, and more, but we wouldn’t know this, because we know our own version of her, which is correct, she is a teacher, it’s just not complete. The Human Instrumentality Project that is mentioned throughout the show is created to break down these barriers we have placed. It is the creation of the state of being for humanity where no individual exists; even identifying this being as a conglomerate (number of different things or parts that are put or grouped together to form a whole but remain distinct entities) would be incorrect, since there would be no concept as an individual. In the 26th episode, it delves deeper into this topic, it speaks of how we use relationships to define who we are (through their eyes). We define how they react to us, their praise and their criticism.
The anime also seems to have a religious sense as well.
Gendo Ikari always speaks of how everything is going according to the ‘dead sea scrolls’, and while I compared it to the actual dead sea scrolls it actually follows the resurrection, just with different interpretation. In this show the destructive beings that are sent to destroy the humans are called “angels” and are portrayed as bad, even though angels are supposed to be messengers of God. I have my own theory that this is supposed to have a deeper meaning, perhaps it’s showing how they overcame God through science, and the angels were their punishment. There are so many artifacts listed throughout the show that come from christian and jewish texts, such as the lance of longinus, names of the angels, and the main creator of life, Lilith. The lance of longinus in religious texts is a spear (or lance) that pierced Jesus’ side when he was nailed to the cross. In the anime it is a long, two-pronged lance that is keeping Lilith in place on her own seemingly cross-shaped pedestal. The angels have a wide variety of names, all ending in ‘of God’, for example, the third angel, Sachiel, means ‘the covering of God’, the fifth angel, Ramiel, means ‘the thunder of God’. The second angel, Lilith, is named after the first wife of Adam in jewish culture, she was cast out of paradise after refusing to be submissive, since both her and Adam were made from dirt. In the anime, Lilith is what created the first impact, and she also created the moon due to this impact. Her essence flowed out and created life on this Earth, and also is the substance inside the Eva’s in the insert plug that allows the pilots to sync with them. All in all, there is many religious inputs inside this
anime. This anime is focused on the human’s reaction to unsettling events and depression. Shinji has had very traumatic events happen to him at a very young age, his mother dying, his father neglecting him, the end of the world occurring when he was a child, killing most of the world. He has horrible father issues that just grow over time. His father uses him for his own benefit, not caring about his well being, even ready to sacrifice him if the situation calls for it. Due to all the neglect and hatred from his father, he becomes very secluded, and doesn’t talk to anyone. Ritsuko refers to this as ‘The Hedgehog’s Dilemma”, explaining that the closer the hedgehog gets to people, the more he hurts them, and hurts himself. He becomes a pathetic pushover so he doesn’t rock the boat, going around doing what people want him to do in a passive manner, even if he doesn’t want to. He does this to gain the acceptance of others, so others won’t hate him. By the end of this show, he is placed through the Human Instrumentality Project, and finds that his own happiness is better than anything anyone else can give him. When Asuka was a young girl, her mother had a mental disorder due to her contact experiment, she forgot about her daughter, and later committed suicide. Due to these unsettling events, Asuka feels inferior and feels very broken. Unlike Shinji, Asuka uses a different way to react to her own mental problems. She disguises her own fragility and inferiority with overconfidence. Later in the anime when she is being mentally tortured by Arael she has a mental breakdown, realizing she can’t be the best. She becomes mentally unstable, and recedes into a shell.
This anime has many different ways to be taken by different people, even the director, Hideaki Anno, comments about how he has poured his life into this anime, and that this is the greatest of his creations, and you can tell when you watch it that it’s true. This anime opens your mind, and it doesn’t spoon feed you the answers, you have to find them yourself. You can never truly figure out the bad guy, because even the “good guys” are corrupted. The anime series lost money in production, therefore the show had an abrupt ending, leaving many viewers with unanswered questions. Years later, a second season came out, along with three movies that answered many questions and properly finished the anime. I am very confident that I will continue to the next season, but until then, I am satisfied with how amazing this anime was able to open my eyes to new ideas, and to see the world in a different light.